Accident seriously injures motorcyclist in Vero Beach

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A motorcyclist was hospitalized with nonlife-threatening injuries after crashing into a trailer being pulled by a pickup Friday afternoon, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Carl Ernest Slater, 56, of Vero Beach was being treated at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. He was charged with careless driving, a trooper said.

The crash happened shortly after 2:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of 43rd Avenue. The Ford F-150 driver, 17-year-old Justin Harp, was traveling south and was slowing down for traffic at the 16th Street intersection, FHP said. Slater was traveling behind the pickup on a Triumph motorcycle and failed to slow down before crashing, a trooper said.